The High Panel is an open-ended forum established by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova in 2010, on the occasion of the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures. Its mission is to accompany UNESCO's work by introducing a diversity of perspectives from various regions of the world and a wide range of stakeholders.

Panel members attending next week's session include:

· H.R.H Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud (Saudi Arabia),

Chairman, Board of Directors, King Faisal Centre for Research and

Islamic Studies

· Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser (Qatar), President of the 66th session of

the United Nations General Assembly; High Representative, Designate,

of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations

· Akhtar A. Badshah (USA), Senior Director of Microsoft Citizenship

and Public Affairs

· Homi K. Bhabha (India), Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the

Humanities & Director of the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard

University

· Vicente Fox (Mexico), Former President of Mexico (2000-2006), co-

President of the Centrist Democrat International and founder of the Vicente Fox Center of Studies, Library and Museum

· Attiya Inayatullah (Pakistan), Member of the National Assembly of

Pakistan and former Minister for Women Development Social Welfare

of Pakistan

· Nasser David Khalili (United Kingdom), Scholar and entrepreneur,

Founder of the Khalili Collections; Chairman of the Maimonides

Foundation and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador

· Amin Maalouf (Lebanon), author, Member of the Académie française.

Prix Goncourt in 1993 (Novel:'The Rock of Tanios'). Awarded the

Prince of Asturias Award for Literature (2010 edition)

· Luc Montagnier (France), Virologist, laureate of the 2008 Nobel Prize

in Physiology or Medicine

· Jean Ping (Gabon), former Chairperson of the Commission of the

African Union (2008-2012), President of the fifty-ninth session of the

United Nations General Assembly, and former Minister for Foreign

Affairs, Cooperation and la Francophonie of the Gabonese Republic

(1999-2008)

· Laetitia Yamon Sagno (Guinea), Vice-President of "O.S.E.R. l'Afrique'

and Project Manager on Africa of the Center for Studies and

Prospective Strategy

· Rabbi Arthur Schneier (USA), President of the Appeal of Conscience

Foundation, New York

· Vladimir Yakunin (Russian Federation), Founding President of theWorld Public Forum 'Dialogue of Civilizations'

The Panel's discussions will be held over two sessions in the morning and the afternoon. Journalists are invited to follow the afternoon session from 3 pm to 5 pm (Room 2).